PIF 2013 Report

WOW!! 

What a great time!!

I left Santa Cruz at 530 am with Joe bloodbath and headed up to HMB.  Found dpshim and FishMaster1 spooning in Dan's van, then spent some quality time hanging out with mooch.

Was SOOO happy to see him looking so well and happy. Tremendous improvement since the last time I saw him...the power of love and brotherhood is all I can think of.... 

Not much else I needed to do cuz G-Whiz had the prizes covered, Al and Sara were all over ticket sales and FM1 was directing and coordinating the potluck set up so headed out onto the water. 

Got to the green buoy and dropped a swim bait....hooked up shortly and was fighting pretty good...comes up...WTF?? Shark!?!  Spiny dogfish to be exact!! Cool fish and ton of fun to fight on light tackle!!

Caught several more then we all rafted up for the traditional on the water happy hour.   

We spent some time talking about the reasons we were out there...about mooch...about shicken...about BigFoot's son Ty...

Then the LIVE ACTION commenced!  Bloodbath showed us all how to do a boat walk, Racinrob hooked up and we all assumed another dogfish...I was floating in the water at the time...dove down to get some footage of the shark...turned out to be a nice Butt!!!!!   

Heartbreaking that it got away, but that's why they call it fishing not catching. 

Back at the beach started getting nervous about the raffle and speaking in front of so many people...but I could feel the love from the whole crowd and everything worked out great. 

At the end of the day my voice was gone, my arm was sore from pulling on fish, and we had at last count ~$10,500 raised for Joel!!!!

 

Our most profitable PIF so far!!!!!! 

THANK YOU once again to all who came out, donated prizes, bought tickets, or just shared words of encouragement and support.

Special thanks to all the A-Hulls...proud to call you my brothers and sisters.

Love you all!!!!!

 

Here's my little vid of the paddling shenanigans. 



 

Sincerely,

Jim

ps...my truck is full of prizes won by people who were not there to collect. I will post up a list later today or tomorrow. 

Great video!

  Awesome turn-out and support. Sad I missed it - 

 Jim,, You  and the A-Hulls did an awesome job of bringing this whole thing together to make it such a success.     
 
  Also, a sincere thanks to everyone that donated all the wonderful prizes.    It's an honor just knowing you all.
       

That big Butt in the middle of the raft has got to be  the funniest and one of the most memorable NCKA moments ever!!
I already knew that RacinRob can catch fish anywhere, anytime but dang man, my rig had to be only a few feet from his and he comes up with a big Butt. the situation was absolutely crazy and it's extremely difficult to try and land a fish like that in those conditions. Only a fisherman of Rob's caliber would have a chance. Next time buddy! 

Mooch - Awesome to see you out and about!

Awesome time on and off the water. Being a little more sober may have helped in landing that fish. When the fish came off we all just laughed and joked about it. It was worth it. Even the loss of my first butt. We were the to celebrate life, and that's what we did.

At the end of the day my voice was gone, my arm was sore from pulling on fish....

by the time I left my sobriety was diminished and my hand was sore from a couple of BigJim's handshakes
glad I had a ride
but I was all smiles. What a wonderful way to wrap up a day of fishing.

Thank you to BigJim, Al & Sara, Glen , and Andy for putting together an awesome shindig. And thanks to all of you (you know who you are) who made me feel like I was at a family reunion. I had some of the best tri tip ever from Fishadow's smoker, and a super yummy grunion from the FM1 fryer (that was hand delivered before I could even open a beer) .
And even after I had put my plate away, here's comes Fishaow with yet more smoked yumminess from his unending foil pan of goodness. I ate with my hands after that

All my old peeps were there, the sun was out, Mooch was out, what a fantastic time.

Such a awesome time hanging with the Mooch Strong Crew!   

 

 

 

 

A little OTW action.

 

I had a great time, getting to catch with some folks I only see at events.  Watching Fish "fry" Master Andy at work is always inspiring!  Seeing Mooch up and about is always a good thing!  Short Haired Joe was a sight to see, I have to say it gave a good clean look my friend!    The Vwool family was out in force.  Some awesome catches of fish came in, Big Jim retelling the story at least 25 times of that big butt, each telling getting better with time.  Ben cleaning up with the prizes!   Good food, good friends it is what it is all about!